


Two poems on the anniversary of The Wrath of the Lamb

by ChampagneCorkForest



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Blasphemy, M/M, Poetry, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Sonnets, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-29
Updated: 2016-08-29
Packaged: 2018-08-11 17:32:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 224
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7901533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChampagneCorkForest/pseuds/ChampagneCorkForest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wrote these ages ago, but I figure now would be the time to post them.  The first is the sort of sonnet I think Hannibal would write (aside from being in English instead of Italian), which due to his fondness for references is sort of fan-fic within fan-fic.  The second is a variation on a theme; it doesn’t sound like Hannibal to me, but I wasn’t really trying to sound like Will either, though he’d make a fantastic poet (he can barely open his mouth without a devastatingly incisive metaphor falling out).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Two poems on the anniversary of The Wrath of the Lamb

**One of the hundreds of sonnets Hannibal has written about Will, here cast as Christ, with Hannibal himself as Satan:**

 

I never thought that I would kneel before

any Christ, be he wooden, be he gold

but you are Christ resplendent in the blood

before your magnificence I no more

stand alone in pride; tasting surrender

I give myself to whate’re you offer.

 

If it be death, then let me die like this

knowing that you as well have bowed to me

and seen the thing I ached for you to see

the beauty held within the dagger’s kiss

has roused the beast in you, the dove of peace–

given yourself to violence’ sweet release.

 

But you have roused a beast in me as well

a love that cuts as deep as any Hell.

 

**A somewhat grudging response, which is not a sonnet:**

 

Christ falling in the arms of Satan:

they say that he was tempted in the desert

there is some argument as to what

he was tempted with: some say power, some say

fame, some say a simple loaf of bread. No one

of which I am aware, has said

to fold himself into the arms of Lucifer.

 

But here we are, far from Gethsemane

and they are going down together,

each one surrendering to the other,

each one surrendering to love.

**Author's Note:**

> I am not and have never been a Christian, but one of the many ways I enjoy this show and especially the The Wrath of the Lamb is as heretical Christian allegory. Christ’s love and forgiveness being so powerful as to extend to Satan himself just feels like a better ending than a final boss battle or whatever actually happens in Revelation.


End file.
